Bikram Singh, who was booked under non-bailable sections of the IPC for hurling a show in the direction of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Issru on Independence Day, was remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a court in Khanna on Monday.
Interestingly, in the FIR registered by police, there is no reference to the shoe that was thrown towards the chief minister during the political conference at Issru. The main offence cited is “misbehavior” with public servants (police officials).
G S Dhillon, DIG Ludhiana range, told The Indian Express, “The plan to throw a shoe towards the CM was just a conspiracy, which failed. The main offence under which accused has been booked is misbehaviour and manhandling of police officials. The FIR was registered following statements of sub-inspector Manjeet Singh, with whom Bikram grappled when being taken away from the spot.”
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Bikram was sent to one-day police remand on Sunday and booked under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonor person), 353 (assault or criminal force with intent to deter public servant from his duty) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the IPC. Sections 332 and 353 are non-bailable.
According to the press statement released by the DIG on Monday, all four accused —- Bikram, Harvinder, Hardeep and Mahinderpal —- have also been booked under 66(A) of IT Act and 120 (B) of IPC for making a video of the incident and planning a “conspiracy” a month before. Hardeep is yet to be arrested.
“All sections for attacking and misbehaving with police party, IT Act and conspiracy apply to all four accused,” said the DIG.
cops not providing details: Wife Bikram Singh’s wife Nisha said, “The police are doing an injustice by slapping non-bailable sections in the case. Bikram has not committed any murder. The police are not even providing us details of the ‘misbehaviour’ done with police. They say my husband tried to tear the police uniform and manhandled them. But when and where? We want the details,” she said, adding that she would file a bail plea on Tuesday.
Act against Mann: SAD
SAD general secretary and core committee member Maheshinder Singh Grewal today urged AAP to take action against its Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, who he said was the “kingpin” behind the shoe-throwing incident. “By openly becoming associated with acts aimed at disturbing law and order in Punjab, the Sangrur MP has proven that he can stoop to any level to fulfill his desire to attempt to degrade his political opponents. It is for the AAP high command to take cognisance of the act and take appropriate action against Mann,” he said.
Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab.
Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab.
She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC.
She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012.
Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab.
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